Pho Ngon Vietnamese Restaurant

Summary: the ph is worth a 3.5, would advise other dishes when trying out this place, or ask them to serve it warmer.
So I found myself on an M60 bus in the wrong direction, and the driver dumped me at Hornsby.
Decided to try out the local Unilocal.Ordered a combination phở based on the philosophy that this is *the* dish to judge a Viet restaurant on, if you only get one chance. I’ve had them since I was a kid, everywhere outside of Vietnam itself.
The result was a bit disappointing, really. The ingredients are there (you can see for yourself on the photo), and based on looks it would seem a great meal. However, the soup wasn’t hot enough to actually cook any sprouts, nor release the lemon zest. The flavour, though genuine, was also a bit dilute — this leaves me wishing for the richer variants found in Bankstown, or Hurstville.
The tea is standard, and the locals seem to enjoy themselves. So it’s evidently worth a try.

Living where I do is a bit like having a cuisine lucky dip a few minutes up the road. This place is very good and I eat here often. The laksa choices are great and the host is a friendly, accommodating lady who genuinely cares that you enjoy your time here. Nothing screams «Sod off!» more loudly than an unsmiling or gruff proprietor who thinks they’re doing you a favour by allowing you a table. No chance of that here. The staff are pleasant, efficient and always welcoming.
* Presentation — Always tidy and the condiments on the tables are always fresh and full. You even get fresh, chopped chillis which I just inhale, as well as four or five different sauces to splash around with when your food lobs. I know, it’s like I’m ten…
* Staff — Friendly, efficient and they smile. I always feel like a really valued customer here.
* Food — Today, I ate a chicken and wonton laksa which was so good I wanted to dive into it. It needed to be shown the lurv. It was very cheap, and very generous; the bowl was bigger than God’s underpants. It had fresh everything and then some. The stock was tasty and not a coconut milk-​fest as some poorly made laksa can be. I also like a wet dish where I can still actually identify what’s floating (and submerged) in it and the laksa here is more than satisfying in every way. You can see what you get and I never feel like I’m eating a wet mystery bag. My friend had a rice vermicelli and chicken salad and he enjoyed it so much that I might start calling him J. Edgar from now on.
They also do a serious Vietnamese roll here. The last one I had felt like a small club and took me almost fifteen minutes to eat. I could have used it for self-​defence.
Good people, good food and great value. There’s plenty of parking in the centre and surrounds and If you catch the train to leafy Hornsby, you amble over to the eastern side across the walkway on George Street. As soon as you come down the stairs you look right and there it is.

I love this place, and on the occasion that I have been there with someone who is Vietnamese, they’ve remarked how genuine the food is (I’d have no idea).
The place is pretty cheap feeling — you’re like to put your phone down on the table, an then have to peel it off, but the food is fantastic. I’ve been here countless times, and will keep going back. The service is direct but efficient. No fuss eating — I love it.
My staple starter is the rice paper rolls. Set of three, I could eat them all myself — but usually have my arm bent into sharing them. Everything I’ve eaten, which I doubt I could recall now, has been delicious — the laksa is spicy and hot, and a favourite — but really, anything they serve up is going to be good.
The prices are very reasonable, and you have to check this out if you’re in the Hornsby area. Ignore the food court at the Westfield, and get down here.